MacTech Blog

Nov 27

Mobile-based proximity payments gaining momentum in...

Mobile-based proximity payments are gaining prominence in the U.S. Although mobile payments are still small compared to well-established payment methods such as payment cards, they reached a new milestone with the launch of Apple Pay, Alipay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, according to a new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com)

Increasing consumer awareness of mobile payment solutions and rising penetration of contactless terminals are likely to drive further growth in mobile-based proximity payments, adds the research group. The U.S. is the second-largest e-commerce market in the world, with a total of $742 billion spent by consumers online in 2017.

Debit and credit cards remain the preferred method of payment for e-commerce purchases, and accounted for 24.5% of total e-commerce transaction value in 2017. In addition to payment cards, emerging payment methods...

Mobile-based proximity payments are gaining prominence in the U.S. Although mobile payments are still small compared to well-established payment methods such as payment cards, they reached a new milestone with the launch of Apple Pay, Alipay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, according to a new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com)

Increasing consumer awareness of mobile payment solutions and rising penetration of contactless terminals are likely to drive further growth in mobile-based proximity payments, adds the research group. The U.S. is the second-largest e-commerce market in the world, with a total of $742 billion spent by consumers online in 2017.

Debit and credit cards remain the preferred method of payment for e-commerce purchases, and accounted for 24.5% of total e-commerce transaction value in 2017. In addition to payment cards, emerging payment methods...

The software defined data center (SDDC) market is estimated to witness a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 19.88% to reach a total market size of $90.416 billion by 2022, up from $36.517 billion in 2017, according to new data from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

The upsurge in the use of the Internet and networking has heightened the demand for storage space, computing power, and complex networking, according to the research group. This increased demand has given rise to scaling up of infrastructure across various data centers and incremental budget allocation towards meeting the burgeoning IT infrastructure requirement.

SDDC is a sophisticated concept that allows the data centers to seamlessly scale up their infrastructure plus it helps the in the simplified management of all resources and unification of networking and server storage. It is cost effective, allows...

The holiday shopping report from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows millennials will lead the smart home and CE purchasing the holiday season, with 46% reporting high intentions to buy at least one device and 36% planning to give one as a gift.

The Internet of Things (IoT) research firm, which surveyed U.S. broadband households on their purchase intentions for this holiday season, found one-third of U.S. broadband households report a high intention to purchase a CE or smart home device this holiday season.

"Consumer marketing strategies and technology evangelism by Amazon and Google have created attention for smart home and connected CE devices, creating an opportunity for a big jump in these products this holiday season," said Elizabeth Parks, SVP, Parks Associates. "Fourteen percent of U.S. broadband households intend to purchase a smart video doorbell, potentially driving...

With the holiday shopping season in full-swing and Black Friday right around the corner, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are hoping their in-store strategies will help attract a greater share of consumer spend.

For consumers – who expect frictionless and enjoyable shopping experiences – a knowledgeable and fully capable sales associate can be the difference between being delighted and leaving frustrated with no purchase. In fact, according to a new retail store associate survey by Tulip (www.tulip.com), a mobile application provider focused on empowering workers in retail stores, mobile-assist devices help workers increase sales and improve the overall customer experience.

While this may be the case, the survey also found that 61% of store associates are actually not armed with mobile devices and only 17% are interacting with customers and expanding the relationship beyond the four walls of the store. ...

According to a study by Scalar Decisions (www.scalar.ca), an information technology solutions provider, almost three quarters of Canadian organizations have migrated at least some of their IT delivery to the cloud. That's up from 59% in 2016.

Scalar's second annual Cloud Study shows Canadian organizations have moved past security concerns as a barrier to adoption, and are now focused on maximizing the return on their investment in cloud delivery. According to the study, highly publicized security breaches haven’t caused organizations to avoid adopting cloud-based delivery. While 35% of companies saw security as a factor in determining how much to use the cloud, 90% of respondents overcame those concerns to move forward with some level of cloud integration.

"The cloud has become not just a standard IT delivery model, but THE standard IT delivery model," says Rene Heroux, chief technology officer, Scalar...

Intelligent automation will transform workplace outsourcing according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Sourcing and vendor management leaders must prepare to restructure these services and renegotiate contracts to leverage intelligent automation, according to the research group.

Gartner defines intelligent automation services as the umbrella term for a variety of strategies, skills, tools and techniques that service providers are using to remove the need for labor, and increase the predictability and reliability of services while reducing the cost of delivery.

“Intelligent automation will alter the provision of managed workplace services over the next few years, increasing service quality at a lower price,” said DD Mishra, research director at Gartner. “Sourcing and vendor management leaders must prepare to restructure these services and renegotiate contracts to leverage intelligent automation. Automation...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that smart speakers such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, and the Sonos One will be installed in over 70 million US households by 2022, reaching 55% of all homes. Total installed devices will exceed 175 million.

Juniper forecasts that voice assistant devices across all platforms - smartphones, tablets, PCs, speakers, connected TVs, cars and wearables, will reach 870 million devices in the US by 2022, an increase of 95% over the 450 million estimated for 2017. The research group found that the ability to pass information between device platforms will become critical for digital assistants in future, due to many users engaging multiple assistants.

However, despite rising numbers of smart home assistants, Juniper forecasts that most voice assistant usage will be on smartphones, with over five billion in use globally by 2022....

Ultra-mobile devices (UMD) are on the verge of becoming mainstream from being a niche product category, according to a new report from Transparency Market Research (www.transparencymarketresearch.com).

Their sales are soaring with companies banking on new product launches to entice the rising crop of tech savvy consumers, according to the research group. A prominent characteristic of the global ultra-mobile devices market is the presence of numerous suppliers for similar components which makes it easier for buyers to switch suppliers at low costs.

Transparency Market Research forecasts the global ultra-mobile devices market to rise at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 6.1% during the period between 2017 and 2025 to become worth $267.37 billion by 2025. That’s up from $157.10 billion in 2016.

Adtaxi (www.adtaxi.com), a digital marketing agencies, has released the results of its inaugural “State of Ecommerce” in America survey, an in-depth look at ecommerce trends and consumer preferences nationwide. From small inexpensive household items to mega, high-priced purchases such as automobiles, the scope and willingness of consumers to make purchases online has proven to be powerfully pervasive.

The survey reveals just how often consumers are making purchases online, what they are purchasing and the method in which they are purchasing them. Highlights of the survey:

° A majority of consumers (55%) would be happy to purchase everything online.

° Convenience was the number one reason (50%) people shop online.

° Seventy-two percent of consumers purchase something online at least once a month.

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that global consumer spend on digital content will reach $202 billion in 2018, up by 10% on this year’s total of $184 billion.

The research found that SVoD (Subscription Video on Demand) services will be a key driver of growth, with major OTT (Over The Top) players such as Netflix and Amazon committing budgets of more than $5 billion to original content over the coming year. Meanwhile, Apple and Facebook are each expected to invest at least $1 billion for the first time.

According to Juniper Research, 35% of UK households now subscribe to one or more SVoD services, a proportion which rises to 76% in the US. Furthermore, the research group says that the trend towards multiple subscriptions per household was increasing, leading to a greater opportunity for content aggregation and curation.

The worldwide public cloud services market grew 28.6% year over year in the first half of 2017 (1H17) with revenues totaling $63.2 billion, according to new results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) research group.

"Public cloud adoption is accelerating in large part as enterprises recognize that the cloud has become the launchpad for virtually every new IT innovation in the last 24 months – including AI, blockchain, quantum computing and more. Organizations not on the public cloud will be increasingly isolated from the world of tech innovation," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC (www.idc.com).

While stronger than expected growth was seen across all regions, Asia/Pacific saw the highest regional growth at 38.9% and Asia/Pacific now represents 11.5% of all public cloud services revenues. A big part of this was driven by strong public cloud spending in China, which saw 55.6%...

New research from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that 41% of U.S. broadband households plan to purchase a smart home product in the next 12 months, including 27% with high purchase intentions.

The most popular devices include smart smoke/CO detectors, thermostats, and lightbulbs. Additional Parks Associates research shows that:

° Sixty percent of U.S. broadband households with insurance are interested in a smart home product that can detect, notify, or prevent damage or loss from water or fire or theft.

° Approximately 75% of U.S. broadband households with insurance who are interested in smart products are willing to let the devices automatically communicate with insurance companies.

° More than one-third of consumers in the market for a smart home device would find a recommendation from an insurance company "very important."

Software developers are involved at all levels of the software purchase process, with 43% often involved with evaluating software and 50% sometimes involved. Only 7% are never involved according to the recently released Evans Data Global Development Survey, a survey of developers worldwide conducted in six languages this fall.

Just over 50% spend between one and four hours evaluating software, not including time spent on downloading, installing and configuring the software - a task that takes between five and 30 minutes for 70% of the developers in the survey. Developers in the EMEA region spend the least time on their evaluations, with 29% spending less than an hour, while North Americans spend the most time.

"Developers are crucial to software use throughout an organization," said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data, "They are looked up to as experts and often find themselves evaluating software for line of business units as well as their own tools and platforms."

With the augmented reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) market continuing to scale up quickly, ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) has added 40 companies to its AR and MR ecosystem tracker. Growth is spreading globally, but China is showing a significant uptick in activity. In fact, of the 40 AR/MR companies added into ABI Research's Market Tracker, 25% are Chinese companies.

"North America dominates the AR market with the leading technologies, accounting for the largest share in terms of total market revenues. Asia Pacific is the second largest market with fast growth, thanks to its population, economic growth, and increasing adoption of new technologies," says Marina Lu, senior analyst at ABI Research. "China leads Asia Pacific in AR and MR usage, attaching significant importance to gaming, education, and real estate. China's massive mobile internet population provides a huge market for AR content...

The global indoor location market size is expected to grow from $7.11 billion in 2017 to $40.99 billion by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42% during the forecast period, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

The growing trend of digitalization, increasing use of connected devices, and reliable assistance from governments for ensuring public safety are the major factors driving the growth of the indoor location market, while deployment and maintenance challenges are some of the major restraints for the growth of the indoor location market, adds the research group.

Among the technologies, the sensor and tag-based technology is a high-growth segment in the indoor location market. To monitor natural phenomena, such as heat, pressure, humidity, and air pollution, in a certain indoor space, multiple sensors are integrated with connected devices....

New data from fintech analysts, Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) forecasts that mobile and wearable ticket purchases will exceed 14 billion by 2018, accounting for 54% of total digital ticket sales across transport and events sectors. Juniper estimated that the total number of transactions via mobile devices will exceed PC-based ticket sales for the first time in 2017, driven by metro and air ticket purchases.

The research found that globally, metro, bus and airline app ticketing is the most established in terms of deployment and user adoption, followed by events ticketing. By 2020, Juniper forecasts that the number of digital ticketing users across all platforms will exceed 1.8 billion, with mobile NFC accounting for 215 million unique users.

It found that the majority of mobile ticketing deployments, especially in markets such as North America, continues to be dominated by app-...

The global smart TV market is expected to reach $292.55 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research (www.grandviewresearch.com). The introduction of 4K resolution-equipped televisions, coupled with the shifting preference toward OLED and QLED displays, is expected to emerge as a major trend in the smart TV industry, adds the research group.

Streaming devices such as the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Google Chromecast are changing the consumers' viewing experience, says Grand View Research. Several manufacturers are teaming up with OTT content and device providers to provide built-in features with no further requirement of a set-top box. For instance, TCL Corporation has teamed up with Roku and introduced a 4K HDR Roku TV. The China-based vendor is using the Roku platform for its television product line. Additionally, Hitachi, Ltd., Hisense Co. Ltd, and Sharp Corporation...

The global mobile payment segment has experienced exceptional growth in the last five years, establishing a $600 billion market by 2017.

The market has moved well-beyond its origins of niche status and is now poised for adoption of new payment technologies such as next generation contactless payments, converged mobile wallets, integration of digital currency (like Bitcoin), wearable payment solutions, and payments through implanted chips into the human body, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com). The overall electronic payments market will also accelerate transformation towards a cashless society, adds the research group.

This growth will benefit all value chain stakeholders including device manufacturers, service providers, app developers, financial organizations, and merchants significantly. Many improvements will be witnessed as the ecosystem streamlines...

Higher education CIOs recognize that key organizational priorities are enrollment and student success, but fail to show innovation with regard to the top technologies required to differentiate themselves and win, according to a survey from Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Yet, a majority of respondents (59%) think there will be significant business model change due to digital transformation, adds the research group.

Gartner’s 2018 CIO Agenda Survey gathered data from 3,160 CIO respondents in 98 countries and across major industries, including 247 higher education CIOs.
Higher education CIOs ranked digital business/digital transformation as the fifth most strategic business priority. However, when it comes to the top technology areas these institutions are investing in to differentiate themselves, digitalization/digital marketing ranks only eighth amongst higher education respondents, compared to second across...

New consumer research from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates. om) shows 53% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to both a pay TV service and at least one OTT video service. OTT stands for “over-the-top,” the term used for the delivery of film and TV content via the internet, without requiring users to subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite pay-TV service like a Comcast or Time Warner Cable.

The research group reports more than 200 OTT video services are active in the U.S. market as of the third quarter of 2017, with more than 100 active in the Canadian market. The report notes that 60 players introduced OTT video services during 2016 and 2017, while only seven services closed during that same period.

"Many OTT services are evolving to be complementary to the market's largest players, instead of trying to compete directly against Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu," said Brett Sappington, senior...

Worldwide spending on mobility solutions is forecast to reach $1.72 trillion in 2021, according to new data from IDC (www.idc.com).

Although annual growth is expected to slow over the 2016-2021 forecast period, the research group still expects spending on mobility-related hardware, software, and services to see a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.7%. Worldwide mobility spending will total $1.58 trillion in 2017, an increase of 4.3% over 2016.

The United States will account for nearly one quarter of all mobility spending throughout the forecast, making it the largest geographic market at nearly $392 billion in 2021. Mainland China will be the second largest country in terms of overall spending ($337 billion in 2021), followed by Japan, Brazil, and the UK. The countries that will see the fastest growth in mobility spending over the five-year forecast period will be Venezuela (8.2% CAGR), India (8.0%...

According to the research group, one driver in the market is increase in the digitization of banking services. The increased use of smartphones and tablets has led to a digital reformation in the banking sector. The BFSI sector is one of the prominent users of portable devices (for digital payments and cashless financial transactions). With the growing transaction volumes and the introduction of new digital payment solutions, the banking sector is challenged with the need to keep the magnitude of fraudulent activities low, without compromising on the convenience of the customers, according to Research and Markets.

One trend in the market is NFC-based payments. Near-field communication (NFC) works if two devices are placed within a few centimeters to exchange data. It requires both devices to be equipped with an NFC chip. Apple is partnering with various financial institutions to introduce NFC-powered mobile payments. Before Apple launched NFC mobile payments, this technology...

The global smart fitness devices market is expected to reach USD 29.4 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research (www.grandviewresearch.com). The smart fitness devices market has witnessed a rising demand among the growing urban population in a bid to enhance their fitness goals, adds the research group.

Advantages such as accessing fitness activities data in remote and real-time operations have resulted in an increased penetration of the market. Additionally, there are tremendous opportunities for advancements in the smart fitness devices owing to the increasing usage of smartphones and enhanced internet accessibility, which, in turn, would fuel the growth of smart fitness market. The growing adoption of the smart fitness devices to keep track of sleep, steps, calories, heart rate, and other bodily stats is anticipated to revolutionize the market by 2025, according to...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that digital advertising spend will grow by 18% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the next five years, rising from $184 billion in 2017 to $420 billion in 2022. These figures include advertising spend across mobile, desktop, wearables and DOOH (digital-out-of-home) signage.

The research group predicts that the annual growth of online advertising spend will slow to only 4% globally by 2022, owing to the impact of ad blocking adoption across desktop devices and the increasing usage of mobile devices as the primary means for browsing. According to the research, ad platforms will seek a greater degree of control over the types of ads being blocked through increased involvement in “acceptable ad” initiatives.

Through these initiatives, platforms are beginning to shift focus to encouraging the use of adverts that aren’t...

Worldwide spending on security-related hardware, software, and services is forecast to reach $119.9 billion in 2021, according to new data from IDC (www.idc.com).

With nearly every industry investing in security solutions to meet a wide range of threats and requirements, spending is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% over the 2016-2021 forecast period, notes the research group. Worldwide spending on security products and services will total $83.5 billion in 2017, an increase of 10.3% over 2016.

Worldwide information and communications technology (ICT) spending is set to accelerate over the next five years, thanks to the growth of new technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and cognitive computing and artificial intelligence (AI).

While the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Black Book forecasts traditional ICT spending to lag GDP growth by 2020, total ICT spending including these new categories will return to growth rates double that of the global economy.

According to IDC (www.idc.com), total ICT spending on traditional IT, telecom services, and new technologies will grow from $4.3 trillion in 2016 to $5.6 trillion by 2021, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% in constant currency terms. Annual growth will accelerate through the forecast period, from 5.5% in 2017 to 6.5% in 2021, as new technologies...

Worldwide shipments of PCs, tablets and smartphones are predicted to exceed 2.35 billion units in 2018, an increase of 2.0 percent from 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). This would be the highest year-over-year growth since 2015, notes the research group.

"The misconception persists that the world has gone mobile and relies solely on smartphones. However, our latest online end-user survey shows that users depend just as much on PCs or tablets as they do on smartphones," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "Forty percent of respondents said that they use mostly a PC/tablet for certain daily experiences, such as reading and writing detailed emails or watching videos, while 34%mostly use a smartphone for its convenience while on the move."

He added that users holding onto their PCs for longer remains a major issue for the PC market. In contrast, users continue to replace their...

TripWire (www.tripwire.com), a provider of security and compliance solutions for enterprises and industrial organizations, has announced the results of a survey conducted by Dimensional Research that looked at the need for soft skills in cybersecurity. The survey was conducted in July, and its respondents included 315 IT security professionals at companies with over 100 employees.

According to Tripwire’s survey, 100% of respondents believe soft skills are important when hiring for their security teams. The three most important soft skills cited were analytical thinker (selected by 65%), good communicator (60%) and troubleshooter (59 %). Tied for fourth place, “strong integrity and ethical behaviour” and “ability to work under pressure” were selected by 58 percent of participants.

“The cybersecurity industry should not overlook the soft skills that are needed to build a strong security program,” said Tim...

A new study by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearh.com) has identified the top 10 smart cities in the UK, with London topping the list. Below London are: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester, Brighton & Hove, Liverpool, Oxford, Birmingham, and Milton Keynes.

The research group’s analysis was conducted over a range of city indices, including transport, healthcare, public safety, energy and productivity. Scores were calculated according to diverse metrics, including present state-of-play variables (such as congestion and crime levels) alongside smart city rollouts, vision and long-term strategy.

The research found that Scotland’s major cities were strong performers across the board. Edinburgh’s 16 year smart city journey, for example, has allowed the city to learn from mistakes (such as disparate maintenance of systems and control of systems by separate council units) and apply its “One...

IDC has published its first Marketscape assessment of the worldwide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market. The Marketscape is focused on global public cloud IaaS providers with mature public cloud IaaS services and revenue in multiple regions worldwide as of calendar year end 2016.

The growing acceptance and use of IaaS has transformed how users procure and manage compute and storage infrastructure, according to the research group. This transcends new as well as traditional enterprise applications, and enterprises are now looking at public cloud IaaS as a viable alternative to capital investments in infrastructure hardware. This has led to increased investments and greater competition among a number of public cloud IaaS providers and heightened strategic focus on their offerings.

IDC says that, today, IaaS is far from a commoditized offering. AWS's early entry and momentum – supported by its pace of feature expansion and innovation – have enabled it to remain in a...

The global mobile and wearable gaming market is a lucrative market that is being driven by the availability of a wide range of games, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com), a rising number of smartphone users, and technological advancement and innovation.

The research group says the future of the gaming market looks promising due to the introduction of VR technology and smartwatch gaming applications across the globe. Involvement of key players such as Apple, Samsung, Facebook, Google, HTC, and other key players has created significant scope for the market. Rising smartphone industries and rising demand for a variety of games across the globe have boosted the market considerably.

The rising entry of new players and rising number of start-ups in the gaming industry will create considerable opportunity for mobile and wearable gaming due to introduction of...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that annual cost savings derived from the adoption of chatbots in healthcare will reach $3.6 billion globally by 2022, up from an estimated $2.8 million in 2017. This growth will average 320% per annum, as AI (artificial intelligence) powered chatbots will drive improved customer experiences for patients.

Using chatbot systems, patients will be able to access care more quickly and easily, improving access to care and reducing pressure on overworked healthcare systems by ensuring more efficient interactions, according to the research group. Juniper found that, despite trials by, for example, the UK’s National Health Service, chatbot deployment will be dominated by Far East & China over the next five years. Over half of the annual savings realized by chatbots will be attributable to this region in 2022. Owing to the varied...

After two consecutive years of decline, the global tablet applications processor (AP) market returned to growth and registered a 5% year-over-year growth to reach $984 million in the first half of 2017, according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com)

The research group says Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung captured the top-five revenue share rankings in the tablet AP market. The market leader Apple gained share and increased its tablet AP revenue share to 37% in in the first half of 2017. Intel and Qualcomm grabbed the number two and three spots with 18% revenue share and 16% share, respectively.

"The global tablet AP market continued to show signs of stabilization from past few quarters with slower year-on-year declines. Despite this encouraging trend, tablet AP vendors have to contend with a significantly smaller overall market in the first half of 2017 compared...

According to Parks Associates' Home Security NUMBERS research, more than 26 million U.S. broadband households will have professionally monitored security by 2021. The research also shows that total annual revenue for professionally monitored security in U.S. households will exceed $14 billion by 2020.

"The residential security industry is changing along many dimensions," Tom Kerber, director of IoT Strategy, said. "The addition of interactive services and home control products has expanded the market and changed the value chain and competitive landscape. Cable and telecom operators have entered the market with security services. New approaches to selling professional monitoring including self-installed solutions and on-demand monitoring services, and service providers are working to expand the market by connecting smart products to monitoring services.”

Security is the strongest driver for smart home adoption. Among U.S. smart home device owners, 37% made this...

Around 65% of tech sector workers use a VPN in the U.S., and NordVPN has experienced a 300% growth in the American market this year. VPN service providers usually experience an increase in new subscribers when a new anti-privacy law is announced or approved. NordVPN expects the number of subscribers to keep growing as the new proposal for “USA Liberty Act” is being revealed – a bill that codifies into law the bulk collection of Americans' personal data.

“Back in March, U.S. Senate reversed FCC privacy regulations, meaning that ISP providers were given the right to collect data without restrictions and without users’ consent,” said Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN. “ISPs can collect data by monitoring Internet activity and tracking user location through mobile devices. Internet users, as we could see, showed that they were willing to take privacy into their own hands – NordVPN subscriptions starting doubling since the news broke out - and tripled in a few months....

Amazon Go and other ‘invisible payment’ technologies, aimed at reducing or removing physical checkouts from the retail experience, will process over $78 billion in transactions by 2022, up from an expected $9.8 billion this year, a new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found.

These deployments, in single figures today, will reach over 5,000 retail outlets over the next five years as retailers seek to make consumer experiences frictionless and more engaging, the research group adds. Meanwhile, the number of consumers using checkout apps, which allows them to scan their own shopping, will grow from just under 4 million to over 30 million in the same period.

Juniper Research found that the cost and complexity of infrastructure integration will constrain deployments of invisible payments systems in the short term. It argues that initially, the majority of revenues from new...

Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) has announced new research showing that 40% of smart light bulb owners use Amazon Echo or Google Home to control their devices.

"U.S. consumers bought an estimated 14 million voice-controlled smart speakers with personal assistants in 2016," said Dina Abdelrazik, research analyst, Parks Associates. "Voice interfaces supported by personal assistants—like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana—seek to connect all the moving parts of a connected lifestyle and are simplifying the user experience. In every vertical, whether it be connected entertainment or the connected car, voice has the ability to unify devices to provide a coherent experience and drive greater adoption of IoT technologies. Simplicity, improved user engagement, and personalization will all lead to a stickier consumer.”

According to International Data Corp., vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products (server, storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud IT, including public and private cloud, grew 25.8% year over year in the second quarter of 2017 (2Q17), reaching $12.3 billion.

Public cloud infrastructure revenue grew 34.1% year-over-year and now represents 33.5% of total worldwide IT infrastructure spending at $8.7 billion, up from a 27.0% share one year ago, according to IDC. Private cloud revenue reached $3.7 billion for an annual increase of 9.9%. Total worldwide cloud IT infrastructure revenue has almost tripled in the last four years, while the traditional (non-cloud) IT infrastructure revenue continues to decline and is down 3.8% from a year ago, although it still represents 52.4% of the worldwide share of overall IT revenue at $13.6 billion for the quarter.

Public cloud now represents 70.2% of the total cloud IT infrastructure revenue, according to IDC. The market with...

Software-defined storage (SDS) is one of several new technologies that are rapidly penetrating the IT infrastructure of enterprises and cloud service providers. SDS is gaining traction because it meets the demands of the next-generation datacenter much better than legacy storage infrastructure.

As a result, International Data Corporation (www.idc.com) forecasts the worldwide SDS market will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% over the 2017-2021 forecast period, with revenues of nearly $16.2 billion in 2021. The research group says that eEnterprise storage spending has already begun to move away from hardware-defined, dual-controller array designs toward SDS and from traditional on-premises IT infrastructure toward cloud environments (both public and private) based on commodity Web-scale infrastructure. SDS solutions run on commodity, off-the-shelf hardware, delivering all the key storage functionality in...

According to a report by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com), revenues from the global digital games market are estimated to reach the $100 billion milestone by the end of this year.

The report indicates that contrary to previous estimates, the PC market has been reignited thanks to F2P (Free to Play) games. F2P allows gamers to access the game for free. Revenues are then made by purchases within the game, which is known as the freemium model; popularized by mobile games, in order to grow the number of players and accelerate spending. Combined with the continued growth of mobile, Juniper projects that the industry will reach revenues of $132 billion by 2021.

The outlook for the gaming industry is positive, according to the research group Developers are integrating in-game advertising, which is most effective when users are rewarded. For example, watching a short video to provide...

Security breaches seem to have become part of daily living. With the recent Equifax hack and a long string of others to large reputable organizations, how do consumers keep their personal information safe? Apple Federal Credit Union (www.AppleFCU.org) offers important warning signs to help consumers understand if they are susceptible to becoming the victim in the next hack.

“Consumers need to be aware of how they contribute to their own insecurity when it comes to identity theft,” warns Larry Larsen, director of Cyber Security at Apple Federal Credit Union. “Many people are unaware that they are engaging in risky behaviors, and that they are putting themselves at greater risk to be victimized.”

Although the security experts are getting better at identifying this kind of theft, criminals are getting better at coming up with new ways to hack. According to the 2017 Identity Fraud Study, released by Javelin...

More than half of U.S. businesses (53%) have experienced a cyber attack in the past year, according to a survey of business executives released today by The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB), part of Munich Re.

Of those businesses hacked in the previous 12 months, 72% spent over $5,000 to investigate each cyber-attack, restore or replace software and hardware, and deal with other consequences, the nationwide study conducted by Zogby Analytics for HSB showed.

“In addition to the rising number of cyber attacks and related costs, businesses are increasingly anxious about protecting their data” said Timothy Zeilman, vice president for HSB, a leading provider of cyber insurance. “Data is what drives a business and the loss or corruption of information can be devastating.”
More than a third of the hacked businesses (38) percent spent more than $50,000 to respond: 10% spent $100,000 to $250,000, and 7% more than $250,000. Seven in 10...

The global smart home hub market is expected to cross 3.9 million units, growing at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 5.4% during the forecast period 2016-2022, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

The increase in per capita income and the number of dual-income households constitute the basis of increasing spending on innovative devices such as smart home hub, according to the research group. Apart from an increasing demand from developed markets, factors such as the integration of voice-assistance technology in household appliances and enhanced marketing and visibility of these products online have contributed to the growth of the market.

Increasing number of connected devices in households, growing popularity of voice-first technology, increasing investment on IoT [Internet of Things] by vendors and rising push for digital economy in developing...

IDC (www.idc.com) is forecasting the combined augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headset market to reach 13.7 million units in 2017, growing to 81.2 million units by 2021 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56.1%.

According to the research group, VR headsets will account for more than 90% of the market until 2019 while AR will account for the rest. In the final two years of forecast (2020—2021) IDC expects AR headsets to experience exponential growth as they capture a quarter of the market by the end of the forecast.

"AR headset shipments today are a fraction of where we expect them to be in the next five years, both in terms of volume and functionality," said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "AR headsets are also on track to account for over $30 billion in revenue by 2021, almost twice that of VR, as most of the AR headsets will carry much higher average...

AnchorFree (www.anchorfree.com), which specializes in consumer online privacy and Internet freedom, has unveiled its latest survey results revealing parents’ sentiments over children’s online privacy and the measures they take to protect it. The responses surveyed more than 600 parents in the U.S. between the ages of 35 and 54 who have children who are under the age of 18.

The study reveals newfound amounts of digitally connected children with more than three out of four parents (76% stating that their children use at least one digital device. However, with a newfound increase in digitally connected children, there is a clear disconnect when it comes to child safety. In fact:

° Three out of five parents (61%) said they were concerned about their child’s online safety

° Sixty-five percent of parents said they would allow children to access a product or app even if they knew it was collecting...

Cupertino handed us a flurry of products this month, and more are on the horizon, hopefully software updates to the software updates.

First up and of greatest interest to the most people are two new versions of the iPhone--the 8 and the X (pronounced "10"). The Spy understands that the numbering is intended to be celebratory of the tenth anniversary of the iPhone's introduction, but skipping a number in the sequence seems strange. What comes next? The 9 or the XI?

And why two models at once--the one a fairly pedestrian (some would say boring) upgrade from the 7, the other a substantial change with many new features?

The more important question is who will buy these? The 8 might be of interest to first time iPhone purchasers and/or those on a slightly limited budget. At a grand US$, the X will appeal to the "upgrade at all costs" crowd--perhaps the more-so than if it were less money. Whether Apple can make sufficient to...

The worldwide infrastructure as a service (IaaS) public cloud market grew 31%in 2016 to total $22.1 billion, up from $16.8 billion in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Amazon was the No. 1 vendor in the IaaS market in 2016, followed by Microsoft and Alibaba, adds the research group.

"The market for cloud services is growing faster than virtually every other IT market today, with much of this growth coming at the expense of the traditional, noncloud offerings," said Sid Nag, research director at Gartner. "The demand for cloud-based IaaS continues on its path of aggressive growth, and the high growth of IaaS is also driving growth in related cloud markets. While platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) are also exhibiting strong growth, IaaS is expected to show the fastest growth over the next five years.”

The global augmented reality for advertising market to grow at a CAGR of 30.79% during the period 2017-2021, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

To calculate the market size, the research group considered the revenue generated from the major stakeholders in the global AR market for advertising. The AR technology combines the VR and image recognition technologies to offer a real-world experience to the customers in the advertising industry.

The AR technology makes the consumer remember an experience or action related to a particular product, and it allows the viewer to manipulate a computer-generated 3D representation of the product. Hence, it is popularly being used in advertising and marketing, notes Research and Markets. It also allows a more interactive experience, possibly leading to an improved retention of the product information.

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